Life around the best MiLB ballpark in the country, AutoZone Park. Home of the Memphis Redbirds!

June 2010

Hey everyone! Dave here. Well, if you attended Thursday night’s game, you witnessed one of the more epic hot dog races this wonderful ballpark has ever seen.

We had Kevin (mustard), Sam (ketchup) and I (hot dog) race from the first base warning track to the third base warning track. However, this was far from your more traditional hot dog race. Here’s the pic-by-pic recap and how it all went down (all photos courtesy of Allison Rhoades):

Getting all limbered up before the big race

AND WE’RE OFF! I waste no time taking mustard down…he had no idea what was coming.

We wrestle around a little bit, and now it’s on with no looking back.

At this point, I can’t forget to actually win the race. Ketchup has taken a commanding lead and I have to try and catch up (see what I did there — ketchup, catch up…oh well, moving on).

Mustard then did an excellent job of not letting me off so easily and taking me down so he can get up. I can’t speak for mustard, but at this point my head is spinning and I’m feeling a bit disoriented.

Mustard got one last quick shove while I’m trying to regain my bearings. At this point I’m thinking ketchup has cruised to an easy victory.

While mustard sees ketchup in his sights I’m fighting the dizziness and trying to get to my feet.

I stumble around like a lunatic as the hot dog hoodie falls over my eyes and I can’t see anything. I guess I had it coming, but I had to shake it off and get back in the race. As they say, if you can’t take the heat stay out of the kitchen.

And look at mustard think he can get to ketchup and beat him. He’s smiling as I’m far behind in third place. Oh he has no idea what was coming up next…

BAM! Ketchup was hanging out behind home plate to slow mustard down. I come sprinting in from behind and take him down once more. Mustard was the heavy favorite to win, so we had to make sure he never had too much momentum going.

As ketchup once again takes the lead, mustard is still in shock after I speared him. Notice anything unusual here? Well, it appears there is a pickle waiting in the Redbirds dugout. What more could we possibly have in store?

As mustard runs by the dugout HERE COMES THE PICKLE! Out of nowhere mustard gets blind-sided once again, except this time it was the pickle’s turn.

It was a clean take-down as I just barely scampered out of the way. The pickle was played by Shane (NOTE: It isn’t easy moving around in that pickle costume, so major props to Shane for not only willingly participating, but to perfectly executing the tackle. If Memphis ever has a pro football team here, Shane would love to be their middle linebacker, but only if he gets to wear the pickle costume).

Despite the lack of photographic evidence, I somersaulted across the finish the line as the pickle was apparently not satisfied with just taking mustard down. He scampered across the finish line just in front of one of the diving condiments.

We quickly scurried off the field (after all, there is still a baseball game to be played) as I apparently leave ketchup hanging.

Thank you Kevin for being a good sport about this whole thing. He had no idea what was planned, but after all…what goes around comes around. So make sure you keep an eye out for the next time the not-so-conventional hot dog race trio makes their next appearance.

Hey everyone! Dave here. Just a little update on our ‘Birds. We’re down in Nashville, and split the first four games of the series and have a double header tonight. Be sure to listen to the game on 560 AM in Memphis or online on their web site. As always, you can also follow live pitch by pitch updates on the game by clicking the “Gameday” link on our homepage next to the batter vs. pitcher match up.

Anyway, remember those horrible storms we had in early May? Well, what you may not realize was that storm created a little friend here at AutoZone Park.

What is that you may ask? Why, it’s our little press box plant! It appears to be growing out of the gutter, but we’ve recently officially adopted it as our plant. Fortunately it rains enough that we don’t really have to worry about watering it, so we don’t do much but watch it grow.

It’s located just off the press box, directly above the first suite to it’s left (your right if you’re looking at it from the stands). It’s circled in blue in the photo below:

Maybe we should name the plant…suggestions are welcome.

So come check it out the next time you’re here at AZP! Just a reminder, we have an eight-game home stand coming up that begins this Friday. There will be fireworks on Saturday the 19th and the 24th and don’t forget Father’s Day on Sunday the 20th!

Yesterday the Memphis Redbirds opened their gates at 1:00 p.m. like usual for a Sunday afternoon home game, except this time the fans’ four-legged friends were able to come too! Shade, water and waste removal were provided for the pups and they seemed to have fun while they were here for Bark in the Ballpark.

You had your big dogs, little dogs, hot dogs, crazy dogs (mostly our full-timer Dan’s dog Maizey), some with weird names, others sporting creative outfits and some that I personally wanted to take home with me.

Dollar hot dogs were offered by King Cotton and even more fun was included thanks to Purina, BrownDog Lodge, Invisible Fence and Little Stinkers Pet Waste Removal.

Nationally renowned act Jake the Diamond Dog was also in attendance to take over bat boy duties every few innings. He even made it a point to go #1 on the field after taking water to the first and third base umpires. The crowd roared with laughter after figuring out exactly why Jake had stopped in the middle of right field, although I’m sure grounds crew wasn’t very thrilled about it.

The Memphis Animal Shelter joined in the festivities bringing eight dogs that were up for adoption.

I am delighted to say that all the dogs were welcome into new homes, including one Caesar Jameson Rooney, adopted by intern roommates Kevin Rooney and Shane Berliner. They already have some cute family photos, don’t you think?

I’m not sure these boys know what they’re getting themselves into…but Caesar already seems to know that he is the boss and Kevin and Shane are his pets.

Throw in a hot dog eating contest, a new addition to our intern class and puppy pools to keep those doggies cool, and I think we had a
pretty successful Bark in the Ballpark! Thanks to all who made their way to AutoZone Park!

Hey everyone! Dave here. Well, another weekend in the books for all of us in Redbirds land. At least for the interns, this was our first weekend off in awhile so we made sure to make the most of it.

Friday night a bunch of us headed over to Harbor Town to run the Harbor Town 5k. I apologize for not taking any photos myself. It’s kind of tough to lug around my camera when running a little over three miles. So these photos I got are courtesy of Michelle, who blogs about living in Memphis. I suggest you check it out. Here’s the link to her blog: http://www.memphistanista.com/2008/06/harbor-town-5k.html

Harrison, Mark, boss man Kyle, Dan, Leigh and myself were there representing the Redbirds and I thought we all did a pretty good job.

After the race people stopped to catch their breath around Miss Cordelia’s market

What’s a Memphis event without a live band?

Anyway, the Redbirds are currently on the road in Albuquerque and we return home on June 10th. Tyler Greene is riding a 16-game hitting streak and Jon Jay is back with us! If you remember he started the season with the ‘Birds and had a 16-game hitting streak before being called up to the St. Louis Cardinals. With St. Louis he hit .302 with a .302 on-base percentage and a .442 slugging
percentage in 45 plate appearance.

So remember, we return home June 10th for a four-game home stand against the Iowa Cubs with fireworks on Friday! See ya there!

Hey everyone! Dave here. Oh man is it getting hot outside. I expected a hot summer, but not quite this hot only in early June. Oh well, I guess it’s better this way than it being too cold.

Anyway, the Redbirds are currently on the road in Oklahoma City then go to Albuquerque before coming back home to play Iowa on June 10th. We’ve won three games in a row and now sit just two games behind Nashville for the division lead. We’re playing well right now so look for us to catch those Sounds for first place in the not too distant future.

So remember the pocket schedule blog a couple of months ago? Well..we’re baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack. Look for us running around distributing pocket schedules in the Greater Memphis area. If you see us give us a holler, and we can throw some schedules your way.

Looking ahead to Friday…The Harbortown 5K on Mud Island to benefit the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Memphis. Myself and some co-workers plan on running it. Right now they’re at 609 participants so it looks to be a pretty good turn out. Look for another blog early next week with photos from this event.

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